Gang jailed for more than 100 years over £53,000,000 cocaine bust

A drugs gang of nine men have been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for their part in a £53 million supply of cocaine.

The investigation started in March 2022 when Cumbria Police asked North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) to arrest local drug dealer Reece Barnes, 31.

It was found that Barnes had been selling cocaine in Windermere, Cumbria.

Operation Matrix was then launched which involved detectives keeping tabs on Barnes who soon met a man called Stephen Stockall, 62, from Cheshire.

Barnes would trade kilograms of cocaine worth £30,000 in cash and was caught stashing the drugs in a shoe box in a storage unit near his home.

He would use this money to fund an extravagant lifestyle by making huge profits off the drugs he supplied.

While still on licence from an earlier drugs conviction, Stockall was arrested on February 3 2023.

Officers found more than 40g of cocaine hidden in his car which was stopped on the M56 in Cheshire.

More drugs and paraphernalia were then found when officers conducted a search of his house.

A ‘dealers list’ with hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs sales was also discovered.

Barnes then contacted Scott Owen, 33, and Daryl Preston, 36, so that he could source larger quantities of the drug.

He then met Cain Turner, 32, on February 4 2023 and Barnes was arrested later that day.

Barnes was in possession of 1kg of cocaine at the time of his arrest.

Turner delivered 22kg of cocaine that day before he was stopped by officers and found to have more than £30,000 hidden under the front seat of his car.

He had transported more than 100kg of cocaine during the investigation period, with a street value of about £13 million.

Police found out Turner was being controlled by a crime group led by Andrew Stephens, 41, of Golbourne, Cheshire.

Stephens would use encrypted messaging platforms to send postcode of drug deals to couriers.

They were instructed by criminals operating in Dubai, who controlled imports of cocaine from The Netherlands through to the UK.

Stephens would send couriers to ports along the south coast to collect the drugs for storage in safe houses in Manchester.

The investigation then revealed other drug dealers who had been supplying Barnes.

Thomas Whittaker, 42, and Michael Evans, 36, both from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were found to have been supplying cocaine to Barnes.

The pair were directed by a criminal group in Portugal to supply people in Swansea and South Wales.

Evans was arrested during a trip to Cardiff, where 7kg of cocaine which had a street value of more than £700,000 was found on him.

Whittaker was arrested near his home where 600g of cocaine was found hidden in his vehicle.

Anthony Warhurst, 58, was used as one of Stephens couriers to pick up 50kg of cocaine from a port in Essex which had came in a shipment from The Netherlands on May 11 2023.

Warhurst was arrested on the motorway and was found to have the drugs on him which had an estimated street value of £5 million.

Owen and Preston were the final two in the investigation who helped to facilitate the supply of multi-kilos of cocaine to Barnes through Whittaker and Evans and also with links to Stephens.

Owen was arrested on a flight back from Portugal on May 13 2023.

Overall Operation Matrix found the supply of approximately 350kg of cocaine between the various crime groups valued in the region of £53 million.

Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Whitehead said: ‘The convictions of these individuals will have a significant impact on drug supply in the North West and the UK as a whole because we have effectively shut down a drug importation route from Holland into the UK.

‘Collectively, these individual crime groups assisted each other in distributing hundreds of kilos of cocaine not only to Reece Barnes, but to hundreds of customers across the UK.’

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